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Old 30th December 2019, 17:29   #1
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To the Old Silk Route

This is going to be my first travelogue here, so i would request fellow BHPian's to bear with me as i am just a casual writer and an amateur photographer. But let me assure all of you that this is just the beginning of more travelogue's to come. We did this trip on may-2018 when i was not a member of Team-BHP. Since i am a member now,i decided to pen down this travelogue.

Our last trip to the foothills of Himalayas(My next would be travelogue-Roadtrip to south sikkim) was left incomplete due to an issue with a fellow friend's car. My hand's were itching to visit sikkim again, so i floated the idea of visiting silk route to some fellow travelers. All of them agreed instantly & the plan was chalked gradually.This was going to be an eventful trip.

The line up is as follows:

Ford Ecosport-Myself & Priyankar
Maruti Wagon R- Souvik da & Shantanu
Honda Jazz- Daipayan da & family
Maruti Baleno- Bratin & family
Volkswagen Ameo- Subhayan & Slivina


Day 1:Kolkata to Lingtam- All of us assembled at Shaktigarh at about 7 p.m. It was going to be an overnight drive so all of us had our fair share of energy drinks(Sting). We followed the conventional burdwan-SH7-moregram-farakka-malda-botolbari- islampur-siliguri route. We halted for dinner & refuelling at COCO moregram & continued on NH34 after that. Just after crossing malda town we had our first of many events of our trip. My car was the lead car and just infront of Hotel Golden Park Malda, there came a huge pothole out of nowhere. I couldn't spot it in this darkness and had to go over it. I stopped to check for any possible damages but couldn't find any,so we carried on. Then after few kilometres, there were moderate size humps created by cement at places. We tried to avoid them but all of us hit them. Again we stopped to check any serious underbody hit.I noticed that my front right tyre was nearly flat n rim was bent. With no other option left,i switched over to spare tyre with the help of fellow members and we continued our journey. Our initial plan was to halt at COCO ghoshpukur for refreshments and breakfast. But we stopped at a Petrol Pump near islampur to refresh ourselves. Then we continued till Sevoke where had our breakfast break.We had delicious noodles n tea. I was driving for close to 13 hours by now, so i handed over the steering to priyankar who has comparatively fresh.

The gang at shaktigarh
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Dinner halt at COCO Moregram
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Near Islampur
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Breakfast halt at sevoke bazar
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Day 2:Lingtam- We followed the conventional siliguri-sevoke-melli bazar-rangpo-rongli route to reach rongli. After reaching there, we submitted the document's required for our as well as our car's permit's at rongli police station. In the meantime we had sumptuous lunch at a nearby restaurant.After collecting the permit's everyone proceeded towards our homestay at lingtam while i got my bent rim repaired at a local tyre shop and joined them later.

Our homestay at lingtam
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At lingtam
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Our beast's lined up for The Silk Route
To the Old Silk Route-9.jpg





Day 3: Lingtam to Nathang Valley- Today was going to be our first drive on THE OLD SILK ROUTE and all of us were very very excited. We got our permits verified at lingtam check post and together we set sail. The weather was cloudy and it was raining at times. No sooner the rain converted into snow rain and it was an awesome experience to drive in snowfall. We drove along the twists and turns of the famous loops of zuluk and reached thambi view point. But to our disappointment, everything was covered in clouds & we couldn't get any view of the famous zigzag roads. We continued with a heavy heart as weather was deteriorating with time and visibility was almost nil at places.We had a small pit stop at lungthung amidst heavy snowfall. The place reminded me of Russia during World War Era(as depicted in movies). We halted for lunch at a food joint before nathang valley. Outside temperature was 3 degrees and it was bone chilling experience.We had noodles & Coffee there and proceeded towards our homestay at nathang valley.

At que khola falls
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Photosession at padamchen
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Enroute zuluk
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Zuluk
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At zuluk
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Lungthung
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Nathang valley
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Nathang valley
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Nathang Valley
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My Beast
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Day 4:Nathang to Gangtok- Today was going to be an eventful day of our drive(more on that later). We experienced sunshine early morning which was a big relief to all of us. Bratin decided to leave early because he wanted to visit thambi view point again(as we missed any view the previous day). But within half an hour he was back with a flat tyre(First event of the day). Upon inspection we couldn't see any tyre cuts, but the nozzle to fill air was missing. It must have fell during some impact. So with no other option he had to switch to Spare tyre which had 15 inch rims.We proceeded towards gangtok. Our first halt was Old Baba Mandir which is the Highest Point on Silk Route at an altitude of about 14k feet.It was chilling outside with temperature of nearly 3 degree. Here few army men informed us that it's snowing heavily towards gangtok part of silk route & the route may be closed anytime. Keeping this in mind we continued towards gangtok without any delays. Next stop was supposed to be Kupup Lake, but we hardly saw it as it was covered with clouds.We continued towards new baba mandir. After visiting the temple we proceeded towards the famous changu Lake.We crossed Nathula gate en route changu lake. All of us badly wanted to visit nathula pass but the permit's for the same were available only from gangtok .So we had to give it a miss. We visited changu lake and halted there for lunch. It was freezing temperature outside. After having Sumptuous noodles n coffee, we proceeded towards gangtok. We were relaxed a bit as we have crossed the critical sections of silk route & the possibility of route closure was gone too.The weather was also clearing up eventually.
Just when we thought that everything was going according to plan, the next event of the day happened. There was a Huge Pothole in the middle of the road in a sharp turn and the first three cars fell victim to it. Thankfully nothing happened to my ecosport,but bratin's baleno & souvik's wagon R had flat tyres due to it. Bratin was already running in spare tyre, so it was a major issue for us. Baleno's tyre required 4 lug nuts & among the available spare tyres, only honda jazz's spare wheel matched the required configuration. So we resorted to Jazz's spare tyre which was 14 inch & it had 4 lug nuts. Thankfully it did fit, but to our shock the tyre was not touching the ground even after tightening. The reason was simple- Baleno was in THREE TYRE PROFILES now-16 inch, 15 inch & 14 inch. Eventually we had to deflate all other tyres a bit to make 14 inch tyres touch ground. In the meanwhile souvik had switched to his spare tyres. After this, 3 cars(wagon R,jazz & baleno) are without spare tyres. With no other option left, we proceeded towards gangtok. Thankfully the rest of the drive was uneventful and we reached gangtok safely.

Baba Harbhajan Mandir
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Baba Harbhajan Mandir
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New Baba Mandir
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Bratin & his baleno
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Souvik da's waggy
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Photo session causing traffic jam
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Changu lake
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The convoy
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Changu lake
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Hangu lake
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Day 5: Gangtok- Today was supposed to be reserved for local sight seeing. But after yesterday's incidents, the first and foremost thing to do was to Hunt for tyres. So myself,souvik & bratin left hotel in search of tyres.We found a puncture repair shop nearby. They didn't repair souvik's tyre. They converted it to tube ones, but couldn't repair bratin's tyre. Again we went hunting for bratin's tyre. After nearly 10 kilometres, we found a tyre shop who had stock of baleno tyres(Apollo Alnac 4G). Bratin wanted yokohama but they were hard to get in gangtok. With no other option, he bought one tyre of 16 inch rims. The new tyre was fitted in place of Jazz's spare tyre and the same was returned to daipayan da. Finally Bratin was on 3 16 inch rims and 1 15 inch rims. Souvik was running on spare tyre & put the repaired tube tyre as spare. In the meanwhile, others visited local sightseeing places in gangtok. They insisted us to join, but i was feeling very tired, so myself & souvik decided to stay back and assured that we will join them in M.G Marg at evening. We went to M.G Marg at evening, did some shopping , had sumptuous dinner at Taste Of Tibet and returned back to hotel. The next day was going to be a tiresome one as we would be going to kolkata direct. Departure time was fixed at 4 a.m so that we can avoid the jam in siliguri town. But since it was our last day of trip, we continued gossiping around. Finally we retired at around 1 a.m.

Local sight seeing in gangtok
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M.G Marg
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Final parting shot at M.G Marg
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Day 6: Gangtok To Kolkata- We left at approx 4 a.m after a short sleep. Gangtok to Kolkata was a breeze. We halted at malda pathasathi for delicious Lunch. Rest of the jouney was mostly smooth sailing. Finally reached Kolkata at about 10 p.m.

It was an exciting & thrilling trip. We thoroughly enjoyed a lot. But we missed out on most view points, and with this on mind we will be visiting Silk Route again. The photograph's in this travelogue were clicked by myself & other fellow travelers, so photo courtesy goes to them as well.

Last edited by Fordlover88 : 31st December 2019 at 14:20.
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Old 1st January 2020, 10:06   #2
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Re: To the Old Silk Route

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Travelogues Section. Thanks for sharing!
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Old 1st January 2020, 11:30   #3
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Re: To the Old Silk Route

Welcome to Team-BHP and Kudos to you on your first travelogue !! I remember seeing your pictures on one of the facebook groups probably. The Spare wheel story of Bratin's Baleno was a one off sad case I must say. The group overall did well to support each other
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Old 1st January 2020, 16:15   #4
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Re: To the Old Silk Route

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Originally Posted by Fordlover88 View Post
We halted for dinner & refuelling at COCO moregram & continued on NH34 after that. Just after crossing malda town we had our first of many events of our trip.
Why did you guys not take the Malda bypass? I recently drove down from Siliguri to Kolkata via the same route and plan to do the return leg in a few weeks time. I wanted to know whether one can take the Malda bypass towards Botolbari.

Great travelogue by the way.
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Old 2nd January 2020, 10:32   #5
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Re: To the Old Silk Route

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Originally Posted by AJ-got-BHP View Post
Welcome to Team-BHP and Kudos to you on your first travelogue !!
Thank you Arav da.

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Originally Posted by nisfish View Post
Why did you guys not take the Malda bypass? I recently drove down from Siliguri to Kolkata via the same route and plan to do the return leg in a few weeks time. I wanted to know whether one can take the Malda bypass towards Botolbari.

Great travelogue by the way.
Thank you @Nisfish. When we did this trip malda bypass was not fully functional. Apart from that, we crossed malda at night when the city is free of traffic. So we didn't take malda bypass.
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Old 2nd January 2020, 15:59   #6
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Re: To the Old Silk Route

Great teamwork I must say! Welcome to Team-BHP! See you at the Winter Meet on the 19th.
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Old 2nd January 2020, 17:58   #7
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Great teamwork I must say! Welcome to Team-BHP! See you at the Winter Meet on the 19th.
Thank you Mithun da. I will try my best to attend winter meet on 19th. Am not sure as i have night duty on 18th.
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Old 2nd January 2020, 20:14   #8
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Re: To the Old Silk Route

Superb narration and amazing photographs. Keep up the good work.

You visited in May 2018 and Changu lake area had lot of snow!?
I visited in Apr 18, just a month ahead of you, and Changu lake was clear and happy. Climate changes pretty fast in those areas I guess.
That said, there was abundance of snow at Nathula. More than what we had bargained for.
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Old 3rd January 2020, 10:43   #9
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Superb narration and amazing photographs. Keep up the good work.
Thank you @Dhanushmenon.

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Climate changes pretty fast in those areas I guess. That said, there was abundance of snow at Nathula. More than what we had bargained for.
Yes climate is quite unpredictable in hills. Even we did't anticipate so much snow when we went.
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Old 14th June 2020, 13:44   #10
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Re: To the Old Silk Route

Can you please share the homestay details at Lingtam and Nathang?
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Old 15th June 2020, 11:17   #11
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Can you please share the homestay details at Lingtam and Nathang?
Pema ledup- 7602871162. He is the owner of both homestays.
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